


==> Be Roxy

by Unda



Series: It's the end of the world as we know it [21]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M, cronus ampora was a mistake, regretted one night stand, void powers are weird
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-11 01:36:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13514019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unda/pseuds/Unda
Summary: Comprises the free will section ==> Be Roxy in chapter 34 of MC Escher





	==> Be Roxy

==> Be Roxy

Uh, ok, but who else would you even have been? Whatever, you have other things to focus on. Mainly dodging Dirk as he tries to see who else is on your list. 

“Spoilers!” you insist but the cheater just flashsteps behind you and catches your wrist so he can see. You need to get him to teach you to do that someday. 

“Meulin, Damara and- uugh, Cronus. Can’t we swap him out for someone else?” Dirk whines, setting his head on your shoulder. 

“I’m pretty sure Karkat spent a lot of time dividing everyone up so I’m not going to challenge his choices.” you reason. You’re also pretty sure Karkat will have a conniption if you even ask and as fun as that’d be to see you think you’ll pass. There’s enough sulky teens around without making another one. 

“Oh, you’re really going to let a fourteen year old tell you what to do? Wait, actually I think he’s still thirteen. What month is it?” Dirk frowns, he lets you go and straightens up properly.

“You mean when is his birthday?” you ask. You don’t actually know but Dave would.

“No, I mean I don’t know what today’s date is. I could check but I should just know.” Dirk says, clearly annoyed at himself for not knowing something so arbitrary. 

“Does it really matter how far a planet that doesn’t exist has travelled around a sun that no longer exists?” you ask. 

“Tell that to the time players.” Dirk says flatly. 

“Stop being such a sourpuss, come on.” you insist and pull him along behind you. 

You make it to Meulin’s table and wave cheerfully at her. You hold out your list of paper to her, conscious of the fact that she’s deaf. She seems to understand a lot but as far as you know none of you know sign language. Well, Damara probably will. You should maybe have got Damara first. 

“Oh, wow. Dirk and Cronus?” Meulin asks with a giggle and hands it back as she gets up. 

“See, she knows this is a bad idea.” Dirk protests. You turn on him and narrow your eyes but Dirk remains unintimidated by you. 

“What? Are you so worried that if you spend even a little time in close company that you’ll accidentally trip and end up dick first in him again?” you ask and poke your tongue out at him. Dirk grimaces a little. 

“Actually,” he starts to correct you, “again implies that I was the one to- why am I telling you this? This is absolutely not your business how that went down.” 

“Oh, Dirk. I was teasing, we all know Jake owns your heart… and your ass. No one is surprised by how everything happened with Cronus, you being a total twink is- EEK!” you dodge out of the way as he tries to jab you in the sides. 

“You take that back.” he says flatly. 

“Nuh-uh! Come on, we gotta get Damara!” you say quickly to Meulin and rush off before Dirk can try to jab you again. Damara sees you coming and stands up, smoothing down her short and very cute skirt. Of course you’re super happy with your soulmate but you still have eyes and Damara is… damn she’s hot. You also really wish you could pull of femme fatale lipstick like she can, or that ‘fuck you I’m so cool’ attitude. 

“On your team, yes?” she asks. 

“Yep!” you say, handing over your list. Damara pouts as she reads it. 

“Great.” Damara says flatly and hands the list back with a sigh. 

“CRONUS GET YOUR DISGUSTING ASS OVER HERE.” Damara hollers there is a shouted and slightly speech impediment warped ‘WWHAT?!’ from the other side of the room. 

“Actually, are we ok? Neither of us know sign language and- I mean unless you do, Dirk?” you ask, glancing at him. 

“I’ve picked up names from seeing Meulin and the others do it and Dave taught me a couple of words but otherwise no.” Dirk says, shaking his head. 

“Should be fine.” Damara says. 

“As long as you look at me when you talk I can lipread. It’d help if I could see all of your face but I know Dave doesn’t really take his glasses off so…” Meulin shrugs, she talks a little loud but then again so does Karkat so it might not be a deafness thing. 

“I can deal with a headache if it’s easier for you.” Dirk says gently and takes his pointy shades off and stows them safely away. It’s not often you see him without them and you’ve lived with him far longer than the others have. 

“Aw,” Cronus say as he sidles up to the group, “you look so pretty without your shades on.” 

“Nice neg, how does that work for you?” Dirk snorts, his glare at Cronus all the more pointed without his glasses in the way. 

“Pretty good it seems.” Cronus grins. Meulin signs something quick to Damara who snickers meanly. 

“So, mighty leader, what’s the plan?” Dirk asks, turning to you and flat out ignoring Cronus. You note that he makes an effort to not totally look away from Meulin though. 

“I had a couple ideas of things we could try but do any of you have any suggestions?” you ask the group. You don’t really have any great ideas, just things that haven’t been done yet. Like you know the planets have denizens in them that Hal says give huge powerups for some kind of deal so that sounds worth checking out. 

“We could go fuck with Prospit and Derse, see what we can gain there.” Dirk suggests. 

“We should go to the veil, there’s things out there. I heard so.” Damara nods.

“Heard from who?” Cronus asks. 

“The stab man in jail.” Damara answers. 

“A trustworthy source, but Hal did mention there being stuff further out there but he said it was later game stuff. Though he did say that a while back so maybe it’s not a bad idea.” Dirk muses. 

“Meulin?” you ask. 

“I don’t have a better idea.” she says with a shrug. You look at Cronus and he just gives an apathetic one shouldered shrug. 

“The Veil it is!” you announce and lead your little group off. Getting out of the ship is no problem but getting to the outer edges of the playing area the game has designated for you takes some time to get there. Derse is your guiding purple light to guide you but all the same it takes some time. 

“So you used to dream of here?” you ask Dirk as you fly next to him.

“If I’d have known it was significant I’d have said something sooner.” Dirk answers. 

“I wasn’t accusing you of anything, silly, I just wondered what it was like.” you laugh. Dirk considers this and you get to watch how his eyes narrow as he thinks about it. 

“The meteors in the veil were all there as were Skaia and Prospit but the planets weren’t. Or I guess they theoretically were but until we actually joined the game they didn’t fully exist. But I only went to Prospit once and I died there so exploring wasn’t really my jam. I just watched over all of you and mostly just messed with the Dersites.” Dirk says finally, as if he has to justify his actions. 

“It seems a shame, all this space to explore and you spent your time guarding us only to die. Then Rose and Dave went and got their dreamselves killed, I’m the only one of the four of us still alive up there.” you laugh, pointing at Derse. 

“If you’re even there.” Dirk says. 

“What do you mean?” you ask. 

Dirk hesitates and looks a little like he wishes he hadn’t said anything. 

“Looking back on it now I know it happened when you were drinking but you used to just float out of bed and it was like sleepwalking. I’d go and track you down and take you back but when you stayed sober it stopped happening but for all I know it was stress related too, I mean regular sleepwalking is meant to be and I’ve not been around for a while so.” Dirk shrugs, he’s not implying that you’ve been drinking but…

“I haven’t been drinking.” you assure him. 

“I know, I didn’t mean… that shit’s genetic and it wasn’t your fault in the first place. We’re lucky Dave and Rose haven’t gone down that way with the genes they got from Mom and Bro.” Dirk says, shaking his head. 

“I am glad we made sure we didn’t bring any alcohol with us, Rose isn’t doing so great now and I’d be more worried if that was an option, you know?” you mutter. Sometimes you see your Mom in her, when she becomes distant from people. It doesn’t help that when you get mad you can hear your Mom’s voice coming out of your mouth. You wonder if Dirk gets that with Bro or if he feels that way when he looks in a mirror, the older he gets the more he looks just like him. 

“Well, we did bring alcohol.” Dirk says, jarring you from your thoughts. 

“What? But you said we wouldn’t, we even talked to the other older players to make sure no one brought any!” you gasp. 

“We brought surgical spirit, for medical use. If Rose started drinking that she’d go blind or die, and seeing as she hasn’t…” Dirk says significantly. 

“Right. You’re right.” you nod. 

Still, part of you wonders. The thing is back on Earth people invented alcohol from fermenting fruit or vegetables, if you were still on the sauce but got cut off by coming here you’re damn sure you could find a way to manufacture alcohol with what you’ve got here and that’s without an alchemiter. But… well, with one it wouldn’t be hard to put in the ingredients for alcohol as well as actual (albeit undrinkable) alcohol and dick around with the alchemiters enough to get it to make it for you. It wouldn’t be all that much experimentation. 

Doubt gnaws at you. But… no, Hal tracks what everyone makes. He’d notice that and tell you both. Rose might not be fine but she’s not drunk, she has no way to be. 

Right?

“What one should we go for?” Cronus shouts down to you two. You look up to see- uh, up Damara’s skirt, whoops. Also you see a range of meteors spread out before you. 

“Whichever, we’ll just land and start investigating and then hop from one to the next!” you shout back. 

Cronus picks the nearest one which is pretty small and the five of you land on it. Dirk doesn’t climb off of his rocket powered surfboard and instead looks around suspiciously. 

“Stay here.” he says, holding one hand up and then blasting off at full speed in one direction. 

“Where’s he going?” Meulin wonders. 

“This is some King Kai planet bullshit.” Dirk says from behind you, making you jump. 

“Wh- How did you do that?” you ask. 

“Dragonball!” Damara gasps and Dirk lights up.

“Hey!” he exclaims happily.

“We should marathon together.” Damara nods.

“Aw, yeah that’d be sick.” Dirk agrees with a grin. 

“Uh?” you ask, Dragonball isn’t something you ever watched so this reference is flying clean over your head.

“This meteor is super small, he flew right around. Nothing here?” Damara directs that last part at Dirk. 

“Nothing at all, but that one looks promising.” Dirk answers and points away at a larger meteor that you can just see over the horizon of the one you’re on. 

“Alright then!” you agree. 

The five of you spend time like that, hopping from meteor to meteor. Some are smallish like the one you were just on and some are so itty bitty that not more than one person can stand on them at a time. The larger ones have buildings on and those are fun to explore.

Damara hits a lightswitch and industrial lighting flickers on. This is the biggest meteor you’ve come across so far by a long way. You all descend the narrow staircase and come into a room that’s got a fancy rug in it, a gramophone and all manner of other shit. 

“This is weird.” Meulin comments and you all nod in agreement. Damara wanders over to the gramophone and puts the needle onto the disc, it starts to play some old acapella type music and you watch Damara sign some kind of explanation to Meulin. 

“Not exactly my style but this place seems like it was meant for people.” Cronus says thoughtfully. 

“Could be junk game data, Aradia did dig the code for the game up in bits with Jade and have Sollux stitch it together and patch what he could.” Dirk theorizes. 

“I don’t think so. All this stuff looks like it goes together and the outside of this place looks like it was made for a purpose.” Cronus says, his voice serious now. He pulls his gun out and it looks police issue. He cautiously opens the door with it in hand, just like you’ve seen on cop shows. 

“Come on, stick together.” you tell Meulin and Damara. Both of them nod and arm themselves, it looks like Meulin has some kind of Wolverine style claws and Damara has needles like Rose’s. You get your own rifle out and when you look at Dirk you see that he has his sword drawn. 

Cronus and Dirk lead the way down the hallways, peering in rooms as you all go. You hear whispering and turn around to see what Damara and Meulin are saying but you can’t see that they were talking at all and in fact you can still hear it. 

“Guys, shh, do you hear that?” you hiss, holding up a finger. Meulin shakes her head and Damara elbows her. 

It seems louder now, an indistinct whispering that you can’t pick any words out of at all. It doesn’t seem to be coming from any direction and no matter which way you turn your head it all seems the same. 

“I don’t hear anything.” Dirk finally says. 

“I definitely hear whispering.” you insist. 

“We’re near the furthest ring, where the horrorterrors live. Maybe you hear them. Void is their thing and you are void, so…” Damara shrugs. 

On some terrible instinct you put your fingers in your ears. The whispering… doesn’t get quieter. 

“Oh, well, that’s disconcerting I can still hear it.” you say shakily and take your hands away from your ears. 

“Just try to ignore it, it’s just background noise and it’ll probably go when we do.” Dirk says gently and slips his hand into yours.

“Yeah… yeah.” you nod. Dirk squeezes your hand gently and you feel a kind of physical memory, of being four and Dirk leading you by the hand away from your arguing parents into your room, of sitting next to him on the worn out carpet with your head on his shoulder. 

The further you all walk through the place the weirder it gets. There are rooms with giant tubes in with black and white horselike monsters suspended in them. Shelves filled with books that have no words in them but just an endless stream of letters that Damara points out are genetic code. 

The whispers are getting worse, it doesn’t feel like something talking near you anymore, it’s more like a feeling that this whole place has. Like it isn’t something but could be. Something confusing and voidy, the potential for something different. 

“This place has twelve computers.” Meulin notes and wanders over to one and pokes at a key. The computer comes to life as if it was just in sleep mode. 

“There’s a sofa and a TV in this room.” Cronus announces from the door. 

You feel almost drunk, kind of woozy and like you’re sliding through the world. The only thing grounding you is Dirk’s hand in yours. 

“I don’t feel so good. This place is… it’s like… layers.” you mumble. You can feel it, it’s like the way your car drifts to the edge of the road if you let go of the wheel because of the subtle slope of the road. A pull of the universe. This place could be this but it wants to be something different. It has the potential, it’s something in the Alpha timeline. The place is just whispering to you, begging you to make it that to be that. 

You stumble.

“Roxy? Roxy look at me. We’ve got to get her out of here.” Dirk says. He leans you against a large wooden table and you brace yourself with your free hand. Where did your gun go? Did you drop it? You blink woozily and something flickers before your eyes. 

A book, on the table. Not on the table, could be though. It’s all… voidy. You can see it though clear as anything (clear as nothing there but whispering) and the pages are open. There’s stuff drawn there in purple. Some mangled squares, an etchasketch line of things and then… dicks? A fight, biting, you can hear Dave in one ear and Karkat’s screeching in the other.

And then not. 

Not this but that. The pages change. Dicks still drawn but without fighting, or not the bad kind. Hushed giggles, whispers, Rose is gonna be so mad. Tiny stick figure Dave’s and Karkat’s riding somehow free roaming giant dicks. 

The book flicks between two, the struggled scrawl and the hushed laughed doodling. This/that, this/that. The book is so… it’s not there but it could be. Could be yours. Could…

“ROXY!”

Dirk.

He’s shouting and it’s like ice water thrown on you. The book vanishes, well, it wasn’t ever there but you can’t-

God, your head hurts. 

“Thank fuck you’re back! You just- you vanished!” Dirk is above you, he’s carrying you. Meulin’s cool hand is on your forehead. 

“Found a way out!” Cronus shouts. 

You grimace and shut your eyes, focus on Dirk’s thundering heart until you hear rockets again and you’re away from that meteor and into open space again. It’s like an elephant got off of your chest. 

“I don’t wanna go back there.” you groan. 

“As if I’d let you, what happened there?” Dirk asks, he carefully lets you down out of his arms and sets you on his rocket board, holding onto your arms just in case you get a case of the vapors again. How embarrassing. 

“I don’t know, some voidy thing. It was just that place, I think. I can’t hear any of that whisper stuff out here and we’re…” you trail off as you look up into the darkness beyond the meteors below you. Into what lies  _ beyond _ . Your eyes seem to adjust and the infinite blackness suddenly looks like great eldritch beasts squirming in the dark. You pick out an eye amidst the blackness. It flashes you a saucy wink. 

Well then. 

“Yeah, being out here is fine, I think it’s just that specific meteor. Let’s keep going.” you say, looking back at your team. Some leader you are, you all head out to some rocks and you go swooning. Blugh. 

“Okay, but I’m flying. I’m not keen on your passing out with a rocket on your back and you pancaking yourself on a rock.” Dirk says sternly.

“Fine, fine. You fuss too much.” you snort. Over Dirk’s shoulder you catch sight of Meulin flashing Damara a diamond sign and waggling her eyebrows. You guess Damara was sign translating all that for her. Goddamnit. 

“If you two are done what about that meteor? It’s got buildings too.” Cronus suggests, pointing towards a smaller but still sizeable meteor a little way away.

“Sure!” you say brightly.

Dirk still seems concerned as he holds onto you and flies his surfboard towards the chosen meteor. You can just feel all that worry churning around in his head and he’s holding you pretty tight to his front as if you’d fall off. You’re not even sure what would happen if you fell off, this isn’t real space and there’s no real up or down out here so…?

Still, Dirk needs to lighten up. It turns out that flinging your arms out sideways and loudly yelling ‘I’m king of the world’ and then ‘WHEEEEEE’ very loudly will make Dirk break down snort laughing with his face pressed to your back so no one can see his moment of uncoolness. 

You consider yourself successful when you all land on the next meteor and Dirk is too busy trying to look serious to be worried. 

Thankfully this meteor isn’t giving you the whispering heebie jeebies and after several rooms of Cronus bursting in first like his own personal Hawaii five-ohhhh snap nothing there show he eventually gives up and just enters rooms like a normal person. Which is good because this place doesn’t have that many rooms but the rooms it does have are interesting ones. This too has giant tubes filled with weird things but these look like…

“Chess pieces.” Damara notes, signing as she goes. 

“They’re kinda… meaty.” Meulin notes with disgust. 

You lead the way into a larger room this one is filled with empty tubes and in the centre of the room is a large, round, platform with a strange geometric symbol on it and what looks like a big laser above it. Against one wall is a large computer station with a large number of screens on it and a complicated looking keyboard with a big rollerball mouse and a giant dial with two settings on it. Currently it is in between the two settings. Cronus hums thoughtfully and reaches out, cranking the dial one way. 

“Oh, by all means just touch this stuff with no idea of what it does.” Dirk snaps. 

“It’s  _ detective work _ thank you.” Cronus argues back. Behind him four screens surrounding the monitors come to life, displayed on each of them are four little kids. The one closest to you is immediately obvious to you. 

“Dirk, Dirk look it’s you!” you gasp, tugging on his sleeve. 

On the screen is little itty bitty Dirk, he must be about what… six? He’s sitting in a car in the front passenger seat. He’s nose deep into ‘The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde’ and there’s a stack of equally advanced horror books piled around him. He doesn’t have his shades on so it’s super easy to see the same soft tangerine colour of his eyes. 

“That’s not me.” Dirk says. 

“What? Of course it’s you, look!” you point out. 

“It’s not. Bro never had a car like that and I’ve never read that book. Can… can you zoom out?” Dirk asks, looking over at Cronus at the console. 

“Oh so first it’s don’t touch the strange tech and now it’s do touch it?” Cronus snorts. Dirk gives him a withering look.

“Geez, you can’t take a joke, eesh. Fine, this should…” Cronus trails off, wheeling the mouse ball a certain way and the shot zooms out a little. The car is a red muscle car, real vintage chic and sat at the driver’s seat is…

“Dave!” you gasp. Only it’s not him, he’s an adult in his mid thirties at least. His shades are different and he’s even got some pretty serious sideburns going on. He’s smoking too, like he’s not got a kid in the car right next to him. Bad decisions aside he looks kind of like a rock star. But that can’t be Dave. 

“It’s my dad, your grandfather and Bro. Kid Bro.” Dirk says stiffly. 

“Jesus he looks like Dave and you and Bro…” you trail off, Dirk likely won’t want to hear you say that part. You look up at the the other monitors. Two of the kids you don’t recognise but they have dark hair and you’d bet that they’re somewhere in the Egbert/Crocker/Harley/English family trees. The last one shows a little blonde girl. 

“So that’s Mom.” you conclude and walk over to it. The girl on the screen is sat on a grassy lawn with a schoolbook on her lap, she’s carefully writing answers down to questions in the book. Next to her is a glass of juice and plate of cookies. It’s all so… suburban picturesque advertisement, right down to the bow in her hair and the neat old fashioned dress she has on. 

“It says ectobiology on it, isn’t that John’s name?” Meulin asks. 

“EctoBiologist, yeah that’s him.” you agree. 

Cronus yanks the dial the other way and now all of the monitors light up. This shows you trolls and if the past one is any indication you’re looking at the ancestors. 

“There’s Rosa and Signless!” Meulin gasps and sure enough you can see a young adult version of Dolorosa with a tiny Karkat looking child clinging to her skirts as she plucks fruit from a tree. And there on another screen is her as a small child, on another a troll with blue and red eyes and so on and so on. 

“So not that creep-vision here isn’t fun but what’s the point of all of this?” Dirk wonders, looking around at the machines and all of the tubes. 

“Well… some of the tubes are bigger.” Cronus declares. 

“My god, no wonder they made you a police officer, Sherlock.” Dirk drawls. Cronus whirls around and glares at him.

“Listen, I know I rocked your world once,” Cronus says and Dirk snorts, “and finding your ‘soulmate’ probably put your pretty head in a spin but you don’t have to try so hard to flirt pitch with me. I’ll take you any quadrant or none, sort ya out if your soulmate’s not doing the trick.” 

“Oh boy, as appealing as cheating on my soulmate for frankly subpar sex sounds I think I’ll pass. Consider my disdain platonic.” Dirk says slowly as if explaining something to a particularly stupid- actually that’s just what he is doing. 

“Maybe you should stop goading each other then.” Meulin suggests but Damara elbows past him. 

“Tell me how bad he was I have to know!” Damara says eagerly. 

Dirk at least looks a little unsure about that but Damara’s grin is persuasive, she sidles a little closer to Dirk and holds her hands a good six or seven inches apart. 

“Damara!” Cronus yelps. 

“Was he small?” Damara asks conspiritally. 

“Uh.” Dirk says, looking down at Damara’s hands. You also do that and then consider the word ‘small’ in this context. 

“UH.” you concur. 

“I mean no but…” Dirk says uneasily and you get to watch as his skin starts to flush from embarrassment, turning his ears and the back of his neck pink. 

“Size ain’t a problem I have, THANK YOU Damara. And I’ll happily show you if-” Cronus starts but Damara shushes him. 

“He just doesn’t know how to use it then, what a waste. If you weren’t gay and I wasn’t dating-” Damara sighs.

“I am not having this conversation, Roxy stop laughing.” Dirk says through gritted teeth as he turns back to the computer. You cover your mouth with your hand and force down the giggles, it’s so rare that you get to see Dirk flustered like this. It’s not like Dirk even gets prudish about talking about subjects that are a little blue, not like Jane can be sometimes, but apparently this conversation with these people is enough to make him nope out of the whole thing. 

“I think if I…” Dirk says under his breath and presses a few buttons. 

There’s a whirring sound behind you and you turn to see one row of tubes slide back and another slide forward. Aside from the big tube right by the middle of this row there are fewer tubes on this row and they’re smaller, there’s just sixteen of them. 

“There’s still a little left in the bottom of some of these.” Meulin announces and you wander over to see. 

“The three closest on this side and… and all four on that side.” she continues. 

“Huh… that’s super weird. Oh, there’s a little in two of the bigger ones behind it too!” you exclaim, looking around at Meulin who joins your side and peers in at the back row. 

“It’s so strange, it looks like all of the functions this thing has are locked. They just say completed.” Dirk announces.

“But we- ohhh. We should go.” Damara says. 

“Why?” you ask, standing up properly so you’re no longer trying to jam yourself between the tubes for a better looks. 

You hear a whisper and whip around to look but there’s no one there. 

_ “Did you just hear us?”  _ A voice… a FAMILIAR VOICE asks. 

“Dave?” you call out, squinting and- there! Suddenly you can see Dave standing there in his cute little knight cape with his hand in yours. Well, not your hand, another you. A you in a weird outfit that looks a lot like the kind of god tier stuff that so many of the others are wearing, only you have some kind of weird bandit mask over your eyes. Dave looks up at you, other you, and frowns. 

“You didn’t tell me you saw yourself.” he accuses faintly. 

“She- er, I mean I told me not to? Or not told, I mean I heard this conversation. God this is weird, is this what it’s like for you?” other you asks, looking down at Dave. He still has his hand in hers like a little kid it’s  _ super cute _ .

“But you’re wearing the god tier stuff, that means I die at some point.” you say as you look her up and down. 

Dave waves his free hand between the two of you. 

“Hey, no, stop it! Don’t talk to your past selves any more than you have to. Every word you say you’ll have to remember and repeat perfectly so stop it!” Dave insists loudly. 

You bite your lip to hold back other questions and notice that the world around you has gone a sort of murky blue. Dirk and Cronus are shouting at each other and gesturing to you but you can’t make out what they’re saying. 

“Where are we though? Why is everything like this?” you ask. Other you opens her mouth but Dave elbows her. Dirk walks over and moves right through you. 

“He’s moved, do it.” Dave urges her, still holding her hand. 

“Dave.” you whine as they walk over to the computer. 

“We’re in the void. We’re the whole cat in a box physics metaphor I think.  _ She _ said she’d forgotten to hit the last button but I guess now that she was lying because she remembered this so I had to take her back here in time. It also means you don’t tell me what just happened and you can’t tell them. I bet Damara knows I’m here but that’s it, just don’t talk.” Dave tells you.

Other you starts typing with her free hand and you turn your head to see Dirk worriedly looking for you, calling out something. Probably your name. 

“Boop.” future you says and hits a button. Suddenly all of the green slime that was in each of the remaining tubes whooshes into the centre one. Dirk spins around and angrily points his sword at it as if the tube of slime is somehow responsible for your disappearance. 

“And it’s locked, good. Come on, we’re going.” Dave says, pulling on your future self’s hand. She waves at you and then the two of them just pop out of existence and the world around you goes back to normal. 

“Roxy!” Dirk says and suddenly he’s got you by the shoulders. 

“I’m fine!” you assure him quickly. 

“Good. But you’re not gonna be if you keep doing that Jesus are you  _ trying _ to kill me from stress?!” Dirk demands, shaking you as he talks. 

“I’m fine it was-” you hesitate, you’re not supposed to say but Dirk is looking at you desperate for answer of what just happened. 

“It was?” he prompts, he looks so genuinely worried for you. 

“Shennanigans?” you say hopefully and Dirk’s expression swiftly changes to irritation. 

“Alright, we’re done here. We’re going back to the ship.” he says flatly and steers you around and keeps pushing you until you’re outside.

“Alright, alright, eesh. Let’s go, I need to do some junk back on the ship anyway.” you tell him, squirming into your rocket pack. When Dirk asks what you play it off like it’s nothing really but you have a PLAN. As far as you know Signless remembers the most from his session before they junked the whole thing and made your universe, he may well remember what those slime tubes do and more importantly he may be able to tell you what one tube full of slime from multiple other tubes could possibly be for. And why the heck is it so important that you got Dave to take you back in time to make sure it happened? 

What you have right here is an old fashioned mystery on your hands!

  
  
  



End file.
